United States President Barack Obama has formally re-instated South Africa’s duty-free access to the US market under the African Growth and Opportunity Act (Agoa), ending a long saga.
In November last year Obama provisionally suspended South Africa’s duty-free access to the US market, under Agoa, for citrus and wine because the South African government was continuing to block imports of US chicken, beef and pork on health grounds.
On January 11, Obama extended the provisional suspension until March 15. In the meantime officials from both governments resolved all the outstanding problems regarding the US meat imports and the first consignments of chicken arrived in South Africa earlier this month.
On Monday, a day before the deadline expired, Obama issued a new proclamation in which he said that based on the actions taken by the South African government he was revoking his January 11 proclamation.
This decision restores South Africa’s full Agoa benefits and formally closes a difficult chapter in US-South Africa relations. The negotiations over the issue had dragged on for many months.
